Starting on July 1, Idaho will become the only state in the union that uses a firing squad as its primary option to fulfill its death penalty obligations. Idaho will also become one of only three states that include child rape as a death penalty crime.
The most controversial part of this July 1 legal change is, believe it or not, Idaho adding the rape of a child under age 12 to its list of death penalty crimes.
In 2008, by a five-to-four decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty for child rapists was not proportional to the crime and struck it down as a violation of the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Since then, though, both Florida and Tennessee have passed laws adding child rape to death penalty crimes. With Idaho being the third, the Court will likely be forced to revisit the case, and we have a much different and more reasonable Supreme Court today. |